2B. The second truth is that we are dependent upon capitalism for our immediate survival. Whether through wages, pensions, or social services, our livelihood depends on income provided by the very system which is killing us.

3A. Most of us would like to avoid facing this paradox, and so delude ourselves into apathy, nihilism, and cynicism. We accept the system’s offer of fantasy and mute our inherent knowledge of the deep wrongness that pervades the real world.

3B. Some braver souls among us face the first truth and so do whatever they can to avoid complicity with the machinery of death and destruction. They may adopt an ethical diet, curb their consumption, or even attempt to “live off the grid” (to the extent this is possible within a global power structure whose tentacles reach into every corner of the Earth). Taken to its extreme, this is the route of escapism. Its goal is moral purity, flight from guilt, the individual satisfaction of knowing you’re no longer part of the problem.

The failure of escapism is that avoiding responsibility for the problem also means avoiding responsibility for the solution. You can take comfort in your moral stance, but with or without your participation, capitalism rolls on, destroying billions of lives.

3C. A different set of folks are more concerned with the second half of the paradox – the fact that we are trapped in this system as bad as it is, and therefore the best we can do is to improve it or make it more fair. They may fight for policy changes through lobbying or even run for office. In its pure form, this is the route of reformism. The aim is to work “within the system,” influence the people in charge, and perhaps become one of them in time. The theory goes that once in a position of power, they would be able to steer the ship in a new direction.

The failure of reformism is that it requires the abandonment of our ideals for actually overthrowing the system or creating a world without capitalism. There’s nothing wrong with making life more livable within the system, but when we become ourselves part of the system, we betray ourselves and we have already lost.

4. By themselves, neither of these two poles, escape or reform, offers us any hope of abolishing capitalism and saving our world. Yet, no way forward can exist without both elements. Rather than fleeing this paradox, if we embrace the absurdity of our situation, we can harness the energy of the contradiction to create something new.

Imagine these two poles are carrying electric currents in opposite directions – one is “negative,” the other “positive.” By placing them near each other they will create a magnetic field. If a magnet were placed between the two poles, it would want to turn so as to align itself with the field. Tesla discovered that a magnetic field need not be static, so the magnet would not have to be stationary once it aligned itself. If the electric currents generating the field are alternating currents (AC), meaning their polarity switches back and forth, the magnet will have to keep spinning to adapt to the ever-changing field. The timing can be aligned so that the magnet will revolve at a very high speed, harnessing the energy of each alternating pole as it spins past. This is how an electric motor works.

As in this theoretical example, real revolution should be possible if we make use of the invisible magnetic field between contradictory poles. Rather than discarding either escape or reform due to its obvious deficiency, consider the vital energy that revolves around each. The impetus to confront and make changes to the system can pull us away from individualism and toward meeting social and ecological needs. Conversely, the desire to escape the system’s grasp can motivate us to create autonomous means of survival and reproduction not dependent on profit or foundation grants.

How can we best orient our politics so as to gain momentum from these magnetic winds without becoming stuck in a static routine which never builds power? Can we be fueled by both escape and reform, while never becoming escapists or reformists?

5. I believe a revolutionary politics requires a strategy to open up pathways for millions of ordinary people to mobilize and empower themselves. Undoubtedly this does not require everyone to do the same thing, but for each of us to pursue the endeavors which liberate our knowledge of the world, and of ourselves. Everyone who reads this essay is probably already doing this – creating projects which uplift us in tangible if insufficient ways, whether gardening, organizing a single-issue campaign, or writing a blog.

What is missing is the alternation of currents, or better put, the circulation of struggles. It serves no one for us to specialize in one revolutionary niche and become entrenched experts of that stationary role. The movement depends upon the interplay of divergent forces, and most basically on the strengthening of relationships across difference.1

How are we constantly challenging ourselves to learn new ways of making change? How are we socializing our projects so that they don’t depend on our own individual efforts? How are we encountering those who view the world from a contradictory perspective, and actually embracing them into our lives? And like magnets, how are we building long-term momentum by alternately mobilizing both negative energy in the forms of anger and rage against the system which dominates us, and positive energy in the forms of communal reproduction and survival outside the system?

Magnetic fields surround a solar flare.

6. In practice, given how deflated social movements in this country have become, we must be realistic about the challenges facing such a two-directional strategy.

How do we fight the profit system to provide for our survival (and stop doing so much harm), for example through universal health care, at the same time that we build communal reproductive structures that provide food, shelter, health care, child care, information, mental health support, etc. outside the logic of profit? All while selling our alienated labor to our day jobs to be able to just survive and keep our families intact? Where will we find the energy?

Can we avoid the pitfalls of holier-than-thou posturing and accept that people have real and perceived needs that they can only meet through participation in the system? Can we implement transformative justice practices to hold ourselves accountable for oppressive attitudes and behaviors without relying on the prison system? Can we keep our revolutionary hearts aflame with hope for a liberated future when the system is so successful at ignoring and stifling our efforts, and even when our movements self-destruct from our own failings and cowardice?

I believe we can, if we accept the challenge of forming a magnetic, self-reproducing revolutionary strategy. If we continue to tinker with our practices so as to best align ourselves with the shifting social and ecological needs around us, I believe it will ultimately bring us more energy than it asks – in the forms of new relationships, new knowledge, and new self-confidence. If we can orient our movements such that they offer people outlets for true autonomy and self-realization, if they can discover themselves and a deeper humanity through involvement in struggle, then I believe more and more folks will be pulled into the process and real power can flow.

What do we mean by power? We are not attempting to construct a new system of power-over that can overcome the old capitalism and create a more efficient domination. Our aim is the decentralization of power in the form of power-with.2 This means that as our efforts circulate and combine with one another, they must do so in non-hierarchical and probably non-permanent ways. The goal is not for a few of us to figure everything out and save the world on behalf of anyone – the goal is for each person, each community to empower themselves in connection with a swirling, dynamic process of self-liberation.

7. We live in a paradoxical world; the most important truths are the hardest to uncover, and the entire world is drowning in lies. How can we expect any easy, unipolar answers to our current quagmire? The simpler and more commodifiable an idea, the emptier it tends to be. Truth lives in complexity and contradiction. To liberate the world and ourselves, we must be able to hold two opposites in our minds at the same time, recognizing that neither is sufficient and yet both are necessary.

For some reason Latin Americans seem better equipped to handle paradox than we North Americans, who are preoccupied with chasing purity. The Zapatistas understand it well – “Walking, we ask questions,” “Lead by obeying,” “A world in which many worlds fit.”

“Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”

2. Starhawk in her classic book Dreaming the Dark distinguished between power-over and power-within. I prefer “power-with” because I want to emphasize that we are empowered through our connections to other people and to nature.

Great article that makes valid points. The future is not to be found either in escapism or reformism but rather REVOLUTION. Capitalism is like a child molester. Even if it’s been “reformed” would you ever trust it watching your children? Me neither.

Enlighten me please. What motive do you suppose has spurred the most technological innovations that ultimately have enhanced the common welfare’s general state of being? IMHO, that would be money. Money and power, in the sense that they can be used nearly interchangeably with one another, whether you like it or not, have always been the driving factor for modern advancements to improve mankind’s life on this earth. In its current state, it falls bitterly short of any semblance of “utopianism,” which I find to be an utterly unrealistic goal to strive for at mankind’s current state of evolution. With this being said, what ECONOMIC system do you declare to be more prudent in humanitarian affairs (exclamatory given that capitalism is an economic ideology, not a form of governance)? Granted, people around the world have been exploited. This I do not argue. People are oppressed around the world, in large part due to [IMO] the government’s collusion with corporate interests and exploitative practices. This can be stopped. The loop-holes can be stopped. The corporate mob and many, other tyrannical delineations can be stopped. I also agree that a revolution is most-likely the sole precedent to achieve the type of reform that many people, from all across the world, desire and deserve. However, although revolution may be inevitable, why not use our history with capitalism, through everything that it has been able to achieve, and refine, or refurbish the system. The constitution is GOOD. The Bill of Rights are MONUMENTAL pieces of literature. Unfortunately, our government has removed themselves from the obligatory roles set forth in the constitution, and thus, our liberties have fallen and our stride has been reduced to a stagnant crawl. The power structure, composed of both capitalist interest and governmental orchestrators, fiends for exclusivity and a monopoly of power. When has a tyrant ever resigned at the beckoning requests from their subjects? But bad leadership based on moral turpitude does not share a causal relationship with capitalism in the least. More likely still would be society’s immaturity in terms of progression to blame for the violent police-state that we are now witnessing. Mankind is just too young and barbaric to have amassed such magnificent POWER, both physically and mentally (not to mention monetarily), over common people. Personally, I feel as though capitalism is a necessary tool that mankind has at it’s discretion to continue to adjust and abate the indifferences that it has created thus far. But do not expect the current power-brokers to allow the paradigm to shift into a more favorable context. This is why we must route out the traitors and purge the system of any “impurities.”

Money played no role for most inventors and scientists … money plays no role for most open source projects which produce the best stuff …

We don’t need money to work on improving our condition but keep telling yourself that we do … keep legitimizing and maintaining this insanity … keep believing in growth and the destruction of our society and nature …

To start with Mr. Sharpone, if you had not been so consumed with your trivial pursuit of money (power) you would of remembered the very basic wisdom so kindly given to you by all your highly underpaid English teachers. They told you many times to be sure to put a space between every three to five sentences for the sake of legibility mostly! Paragraphs are also good because they could help make your “spew of questions” seem so much more manageable and oh so much more coherent…

Secondly, the sad truth of the matter is that this world is governed by two kinds of people, those that envision our reality and those that merely follow the current reality despite it’s obvious shortcomings. To put it simply, if we were to purely rely on individuals like yourself; I have no doubt we would sadly still be residing in caves and spear chucking for our food on a daily basis. I’m firmly assured we would of never discovered fire or the wonders of agriculture. Two of the biggest discoveries that gave us means to obtaining some sort of reasonable standard of living.

I would like you to remember that from now on, everytime you even consider second guessing a progressive mind, be sure to stop yourself and praise them instead! Their the single biggest reason you get to enjoy the recliner you spend way too much time in, which also just happens to reside inside your air conditioned house….. Your house also just happens to be yet another one of many things they call innovations, these magical items that are reality changing and are also highly taken for granted by just about everyone these days.

The problem with skeptics is your sort likes to ask an awful lot of questions concerning this wondrous item called progressive change yet, you never make any attempt at contributing towards the collaborative effort that makes progressive change possible. Basically, your sort is mostly only good for praising the meager benefits of the time, you never see the bigger picture (beforehand) of how we can move past the current state to the oh so much better reality we could all live in and even “gasp” share possibly. Your sort did nothing but preach the gospels then, just as individuals like yourself currently do nothing but say things like “this is the way of the world!” and “we should just make the most of what is obviously all were going to get!” now.

Honestly, do all of humanity a favor, just spare us your misguided delusions, I realize the world is a feeble place that leaves much to be desired by everyone and that is precisely why I am going to say we are nowhere near my current expectations for what we ought to have as human beings. As long as we reside under this broken, ugly, and extremely vile thing called capitalism (imperialism dressed up), we are never going to realize our full potential. This is because it demands we surrender our single most precious aspect that separates us from all the other animals on the food chain. It demands we surrender our ingenuity as our top priority.

this is why we haven’t progressed that much outside of computers and cellphones in the last sixty years. This is also why we are still dealing with the following long list of problems:

severe energy deficiencies, why cancer and similiar diseases will never be cured,why we sorely lack earth friendly technologies that are actually efficient/affordable, the continuance to want to fund the useless enterprises of lotteries/sports, lack of affordable technologies to colonize space, still thinking up pointless wars in the name of shameless resource acquisition, angering individuals who in turn go make terrorist cells with eerily similar sounding names, why most parts of the world now suffer from obesity or malnutrition, why Monsanto’s can legally control and run a food monopoly, why numerous investors/retirees continue to be swindled for billions by con artists, why we continue to get mostly snake oil sellsmen as world leaders, why welfare recipients/their many children continue to do nothing progressive for humanity, and most importantly is also why were slowly losing our human right to secondary education (education should not cost anything!) a freedom needed by all progressive thinkers no matter what corner of the world they hail from currently…. P.S. student loan debts are in the trillions now to add insult to injury.

The root of the problem is that people who are overly consumed with this silly thing called currency (money), which mind you was very much invented by some devious mind. All they did was cleverly assign “psychic value” to this thing called currency (money) so individuals like yourself wouldn’t cry fowl everytime you got left out of receiving a gift come Christmas time…. That is seriously all capitalism was made for honestly. If you wanted to get really in basic terms, your great great great whatever grandfather didn’t want to trade pies for metal or chickens for pigs so we had to improvise and make a system that utilizes psychic value so humanity could continue to progress oh so slowly despite its many differences/selfish needs… Or in other words, so the biggest hypocrites and leeches of our world could (rapidly) get a majority share of the pot in the meantime in order to be appeased…

In conclusion, Capitalism isn’t good for “progressive change” in any sense of the word. Not in the slightest, all because progressive change often cuts into profit margins. That is the single most reason we still host futile wars for this sad excuse for a resource called fossil fuels and is also the reason we haven’t managed to develop solar panels that give everyone free electricity on sunny days or at least have a lightbulb that does not have to be replaced every month… The original Edison lightbulb, it has has been burning strong for almost two hundred years now… That is right everyone, next time you are at Wal-mart or whatever mass retailer you purchase from, you be sure to specify to these businesses that you want a genuine Edison lightbulb so you won’t have to change it every single month anymore!

P.S. –

I vote escapist, because I gave up hope for over 90% of humanity a long time ago, only when another selfless Gandi figure or another Joan of Arc rise from the ashes of despair, to once again lead the vast majority of ignorant individuals out of darkness, will I reconsider being proactive again in humanitarian causes. Til then, I am quietly betting my entire life savings on mind uploading being our last saving grace should we actually be wise enough to actually fund it…. I guess we shall all see either way.

“But bad leadership based on moral turpitude does not share a causal relationship with capitalism in the least.”

Yes it does. Our fear and competition based monetary system and capitalism create a fear and ego based incentive and value system. Those who got the most influence (the most money/capital) reshape the system to support their fear and ego more and more … that’s why capitalism always and inevitably results in what we got today.

Hi… I like that you recognize the enemy and the daunting task at hand. But the wind is at your back more than you think. Those who have invested their lives to the system such as al sharpone over there, are frantic that they should not have wasted their time and been a damned fool. It is such as shame to think like that, and never learn.

I would like to gently critique your writing should become more of a flowing stream to reflect the free-flowing life for which we strive. E.g. there is no need to break everything down as the academic training has drilled us: 1, 2 3, 3A, 3B etc. Don’t worry, people either understand and connect or they don’t. For better or worse, we have to fight reason with emotion. Rigid analysis ends up sounding too frantic, even militant, and sort of diatribal. That is a war that is unwinnable.